I wanted to leave with them, but I hadn’t built up enough strength. Ajax wanted to go with them as well, but his loyalties and responsibilities were to defend us, so he stayed.
Fawn took over in Kendra’s absence. She was in charge, but she isn’t trained in security. Kendra put Ajax in her seat, watching the monitors, with Fawn nearby. Arabella should’ve gone back into the inner chamber, but I didn’t want her that far away. Gwen and I had our swords, Ajax had three guns on him plus a sword, and our little swan had nothing to defend herself with.
“Have you ever been taught how to fight?” I asked her.
“The Dragon King insisted I learn to shoot a weapon. I don’t like the violence of them, but I’m quite good at it.”
Without turning, Ajax asked her, “Do you know what you shot?”
“A bunch of them, actually. He said most of his people carry Sigs, and so that’s what I shot the most. Nine millimeter, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Fawn. Can we get Arabella a gunbelt, a nine mil Sig with a small grip, and four loaded magazines, please?” Ajax formed it as a question, but it came out as an order.
Fawn seemed fine with it, though, and it made sense. Kendra had left Ajax in charge of Security. Fawn was in charge of everything, including security, but she was smart enough to know not to argue with the person Kendra trusted to watch over us. Within five minutes, another vampire brought the items requested and handed them off to Ajax.
“Come here, Arabella.” She walked to him and he motioned to the belt without taking his eyes off the monitors. “Put that on, and then put a mag in the weapon and chamber a round, please.”
The tiny little swan shifter immediately obeyed. She was clearly comfortable with the weapon, and I breathed a littleeasier. She slid the loaded weapon into the holster, the extra mags into the slots for them, and adjusted the belt.
“Excellent,” Ajax told her without turning from the security feeds. “The people in this room are supposed to be the last line of defense. If the enemy finds the saferoom, it’s up to us to keep them from reaching those in the inner chambers. The most important thing in a fight is to kill the enemy without hitting someone on our side. I’ll let Kieran explain the pattern we’ve established in this room to try to keep friendly fire to a minimum.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Gwen
Word reached us that we’d won the battle, but the news came with a list of people we’d lost. There were too many dead, but this is always the case in war. Few Strigorii vampires would mourn the loss of the Alpha Werewolf, and yet, we wanted to give moral support to his twin brother, Duke, the President of the RTMC.
Ajax led a group of wolves in Abbott’s security team to the coterie house — a forward team to make sure it was safe for some of us to return. I was in his head the whole time, observing without interfering. The team’s forward portion made it to the basement, and to the people in the side room. These were the most expendable of those under Abbott’s protection. We’d run so short of saferoom space after multiple sites were bombed, we’d had to house some here. This group hadn’t been in contact with anyone until Ajax showed up, and they cheered at the news we’d won.
Those under Abbott’s protection had arrived at dozens of safehouses over a two-week time period, an SUV at a time. They could leave faster, so within hours, chartered buses arrived to move most everyone out of the shelter areas.
We were told we must stay, however. Fawn put Kieran and me into Abbott’s suite shortly before dawn. Ajax assured us he’dstay nearby until we awakened, and I knew he’d die before he left us without a guard.
* * * *
Ajax
I felt the sun come over the horizon. Or rather, I felt the Doyles fade. Whatever animated them was gone. Strigorii don’tsleepduring the day. They die at dawn and are reanimated once the energy of the sun dissipates enough. The strongest awaken around three or four in the evening, the weakest don’t rise until the sun dips below the horizon and is completely gone from sight. Most fall somewhere between.
Thankfully, both Kieran and Gwen are strong, and this time of year I expected they’d be down around eight hours. I was exhausted, but I’d sleep when they rose.
The basement den’s television currently showed all security monitors on the property. I could sit on one of the sofas and keep an eye on the door to Abbott’s suite as well as the grounds. I could also see everyone who came and went via the staircase. There’s another way in and out, but few people know about it, and it involves moving furniture to get to it. I could see that wall as well. The booby traps were set behind it, so anyone trying to get in would be killed. Still, I felt better with my eyes on both potential ingresses.
The wolf guards were on the stairs, at the top, and all around the property. They were blood bound to Abbott and completely trustworthy. No one else with a beating heart was downstairs. Just me and Arabella, and she was exhausted.
“Stretch out on the sofa and sleep,” I told her. “With any luck, the next eight or so hours will be boring.”
“I can’t sleep while you have to be awake and alert. I need to keep you company.”
“I’ll be fine. I’ve been trained for this — how to stay alert in any circumstance, even extreme lack of sleep. Most of my training from my former Master was in the skills needed to be a top-notch bodyguard. This is what I’m best at. Please, Arabella, stretch out and take a nap.” When she didn’t move, I told her, “I can order it, if that will make it easier for you to obey.”
She walked to the other sofa and stretched out, but she clearly wasn’t happy about it. “I’m too wound up to go to sleep.”
“Then we’ll talk. What do you think I most need to understand about you?”
“That I’vealwaysbeen a slave. My biological maternal unit sold her eggs to the slavers. I was hatched in an incubator and raised as a slave. Swanlings don’t need to be fed with a bottle. The handlers only need to float the food on the water, and even day-old swans can eat without help. We were kept in swan form the vast majority of the time for the first five years of our lives. When we first started spending a lot of time in human form, we were preschool and kindergarten age, depending upon the jobs we’d be heading for. We spent long days in classrooms, learning to speak, and for some, basic reading skills. By the time I was seven, I had a job. Folding laundry, at first, but then I was sent to the onion fields at eleven, and I worked there until Sophia took the crown.” A sigh. “I didn’t know how old I was when I was living it. A therapist told me my history, along with the ages everything happened. The former king’s people kept good records, at least.”
She took a few breaths, and I had the feeling she was deciding how much to share. I didn’t press. After a few moments, she continued. “As with all of the children, we were periodically sold to someone who wanted a virgin. After the first time, we weren’t virgins anymore, of course, but by only selling us a half-dozen or so times a year, I guess we acted the same way a virginwould act, and we were ordered to lie and tell the customer it was our first time.”
